When Dr. Otubu of the Ambrose Alli University sex for mark scandal fame was publicly humiliated and became an object of national scorn in July 2010, one would have thought that other randy lecturers would have learnt to tread this path of ignominy with care. Alas! That wasn’t the last we were going to hear of such salacious tales of philandering lecturers. Well, not that one really believed that this filthy culture has totally been eradicated from our academic citadels but you would want to, at least, be positive that it will take a while before such messy scandal becomes an object of national discussion again.
The man currently in the eye of the storm is a lecturer in the Delta State University (DELSU) named Mr Ifeanyi Ugwu Raphael. He is a lecturer in the Theatre Arts department, however, fate played a fast one on him and staged a tragic play for the whole world to see with him as the lead character. He was a villain whose show was beamed over to his audience with him acting in his birthday suit. He was not only humiliated by having his nude pictures snapped and made viral all over the internet , he was made to do that with the exam scripts of the 400 level lady that has been failing his 200 level course, “THA 203”, since her sophomoric year. Her decline to accede to Mr Ifeanyi’s sexual advances marked the beginning of her plight. It was also learnt that male students that failed Mr Ifeanyi’s course were being made to cough up N5000 if they actually intend to pass.
Now and then, when shameful issues like this in our higher institutions make the news, a lot of unaffected individuals dismiss them as isolated cases. Truth is, a lot of female students still suffer from this sexual molestation in secrecy. It takes brazen and ruthless courage and an unwavering resolve for vendetta to do what the two female students that orchestrated the downfall of Dr Otubu and Mr Ifeanyi did. Often times, when the victimised ladies go through the supposedly proper means or channel to table complaints, the matter is silenced and the female students undergo further victimisation while the concerned lecturers are quietly extricated with a slap in the wrist from their colleagues. If they however, decide to get the lecturers pants down , their studentship is in jeopardy most times as the institution always believe the students are not supposed to take laws into their hands. Let us not forget here that the lady that helped Dr Otubu to meet his waterloo had her studentship terminated and later reviewed to suspension for 6 semesters.
But how did we our higher institutions get to this deplorable state? When did our citadels of learning become factories for churning out salacious tales of randy lecturers? When did our lecturers who are supposed to be custodians of the youthful virgin minds become people of questionable characters? How did supposedly institutions of higher learning become places of low and deplorable moral standard? How did a place where there is supposed to be intellectual engagements and quality research turn into a trade by barter market where sex is exchanged for grades? The systemic corruption is now becoming endemic in our institutions and has eaten deep into our various faculties of learning. This is particularly worrisome because a mind that is not only warped but has a skewed view of reward and value system from the university will need more than divine intervention to be uprightly productive in the society again.
The signs are particularly not good for a nation like ours right now. Our educational sector is in shambles at the moment and if not salvaged soon may find itself pirouetting into a grinding comatose. The UNESCO 2011 report just released confirmed that Nigeria has the highest number of children out of school. 57 million children in the whole world, were out of school in 2011, out of which Nigeria had about 10 million. Out of every five children out of school Nigeria has one. If this is not definition of an educational crisis, I wonder what exactly is. We are now classified alongside countries like Mali, Niger, Pakistan , Yemen and others.
Back to the higher institution scandal. Granted that we still have a great percentage of hardworking and morally upright lecturers in our school systems but as the saying goes we still have little foxes that destroy the vines all around. There are a number of factors that need to be tackled to reduce the downward trend and slow down our institutional standards’ race to abysmal depth.
First and foremost WAEC and NECO should be restructured and standardized. There are a lot of secondary school graduates parading “A” grades in various subjects yet have problems constructing simple sentences. It was the lack of confidence in results of WAEC, NECO and JAMB that gave birth to Post –UME exams in the first place. This writer once met a 300 level electrical engineering student in one of our universities who had a hard time solving quadratic equation. If an engineering student cannot solve a quadratic equation, how is he/she supposed to battle ordinary differential equations? “ If ye cant run against men, how shall ye against horses? “
Sometimes students are the ones who initiate the process of cutting corners for examination grades in universities. Therein lies one of the problems ;universities are fed with candidates who obtained certificates through various backdoor means and when time comes to test their intellectual capability, some of them are found wanting and as a result of desperation seek for immoral means of passing the exams. Frustration sets in, and since they cannot afford to be sent home for poor academic performance, the male students look for ways to pay their way through while their female counterparts offer their bodies as sacrifices for willing lecherous lecturers.
Government also needs take concrete steps about eradicating a lot of mushroom private schools springing up in our cities and urban centres daily. A lot of them are glorified “special centres” where students go to sit for their exams and pay a premium price to pass through sleazy means. Most of these schools engage in malpractices in collaboration with compromised external invigilators who are paid to turn blind eyes while these acts go on.
The list of things we are supposed to do are not endless but they are many and the earlier we start the better. Parents should also stop conniving with students in buying certificates and there should be minimal force in coercing a child about the course of study in the university. Passion is needed to be truly successful in any undertaking and when the rigorous academic chips are down, only their genuine passion will see them through. Government should also create jobs for the educated so we do not end up having lecturers who ended up with lecturing as a means of last resort. Such people will never teach with passion and will probably end up frustrating students since they are also frustrated too.
The university system should also be revamped such that lecturers don’t end up doing their Phd program for years without bagging the degree. A lot of good lecturers have been frustrated to seek for greener pastures outside the shores of this country after chasing Phd degrees for more than 5 years without success. Some of these people have been able to get their Phd degrees outside this country in record time (usually three years) while publishing research papers of international standards in the process.
It is however not all gloom and doom for our higher institutions as some students known to have graduated with Second Class Upper division in their bachelors degree have gone ahead to graduate with distinction at masters level in higher institutions of international repute in the United kingdom. Sounds good to the hearing, but that is like a drop of water in the ocean of problems confronting us.
If we must put a stop to these embarrassing scandals of epic proportion like that of Mr Frank and Dr Otubu, then proper channels of reporting harassment must be created so that such acts can be nipped in the bud before it becomes a filthy news item on a national scale. Vice chancellors should ensure that the channels are created properly and the interests of the victims are properly protected.
Finally, every loophole exploited by educational saboteurs in frustrating the system -invigilators who take bribe , schools that aid gross exam malpractice, agents of the so called “special centres” and admission racketeering- must be plugged. This will go a long way in reducing problems caused by foundational academic competency challenges and deficiencies in students while in the university. For even the holy book says : “If the foundation be destroyed , what can the righteous do? “.
I tweet as @shimoshi1.
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